Being Okay with Not Being Okay

Meditation is not about reaching into some cosmic plane to pull peace to yourself.  It is about observing, acknowledging, and accepting.  In a lot of ways, the process of grief is like meditation.

First, your instinct is to fight the situation - your brain wants to wander and distract you - then, you become frustrated with yourself for not being able to fall easily into meditation.  When you finally achieve the lightness of simply being in your body, breathing, and letting your thoughts go as they come to you, it is much like the final stage of grief: You are not changing the circumstances.  You are simply accepting things as they are.

You don't have to be a master of meditation to feel the benefits of it.  Accept where you are, let it go.  That is the way to improve your skill at meditation.  You cannot force yourself to be better at meditation: you succeed in meditation by letting go of the need to control.